TERROR experts yesterday warned that up to 30 Scots have travelled to join jihadi extremists rampaging through Syria and Iraq.

World-renowned analysts said dozens of home-grown radicalised Muslims have already answered the call to arms from terror group Islamic State.

They spoke out as Scotland’s top counter terror police officer said it would be “foolish to discount the fact” some IS extremists would be Scots and Home Secretary Theresa May said she is ready to introduce new powers to curb home-grown terrorism.

Detective Chief Superintendent John Cuddihy, of Police Scotland’s Organised Crime and Counter Terrorism team, said: “There have been significant efforts here in Scotland to put in place strong security arrangements.

“We are also working tirelessly to identify people with links to Scotland who may have gone out there to fight and to make sure that we deal with the implications if, indeed, they return.”

Magnus Ranstorp, former director of the Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence at the University of St Andrews, said: “The exact numbers are obviously impossible to quantify – I would estimate there are around 30 Scots over there.

“Radicalisation is very individualised and is unique to your personal circumstance.

“One issue that’s also very important is you will have radicalisers and recruiters who will give them practical help as well as indoctrinate.”

Raffaello Pantucci, a senior research fellow at security and defence think tank the Royal United Services Institute, added: “There has been a problem in Scotland with radicalisation and a number of individuals have been involved in investigations.

“How substantial those numbers are has never been proven but I would suspect there would be a number going over from Scotland.

“I would say that 20 is a reasonable estimate given the period of time we are dealing with, the fact we have already seen one show up in a prominent video and given the fact we know others have shown up in other investigations.”

Raffaello Pantucci from the Royal United Services institute

Professor Rik Coolsaet, author of Jihadi Terrorism And The Radicalisation Challenge, said: “What we found out is that the motivation of youngsters who go to theatres of war like Syria and the reasons why they leave are extremely varied but most often it can’t be pinned down to religious motivation.

“A number of those who went in the beginning went for idealistic reasons. But, with all the information we are getting from Syria and Iraq about the cruelty of Islamic State, those who are going now are going to join a gang of murderers.

“We think they are different in their view of the world than those who went a year ago.”

An undercover Sunday Mail reporter spoke to IS fighters, who said an active senior member of the organisation in Iraq had lived in Scotland.

The fighter, who goes by the name Muthenna on social media, told us there is “one brother that lived there (Scotland) all his life”. A female Scottish medical science student living in an IS-controlled area of Syria tweeted her support for the terror group.

The woman, who goes under the Twitter name @UmmLayth_, sent messages supporting the killers of Lee Rigby and appealed for someone to send her Irn-Bru, describing it as her “favourite fizzy drink”.

Earlier this year Aberdeen man Abdul Raqib Amin featured in a terrorist recruitment video after moving from Britain to fight with Islamic radicals.

Along with two extremists from Cardiff, the 26-year-old urged Western Muslims to join ISIS to fight and identified himself as Abu Bara al Hindi.

The video emerged in June this year and Amin was identified in July.

Contacted by the Sunday Mail last week, family members in Aberdeen refused to comment on claims that he remains alive.

Yesterday, Theresa May said there was a “very deadly threat” to the UK from terrorism at home and abroad and insisted officials must have all the legal powers they need to tackle the problem.

She said: “Dealing with terrorism and extremism will require continued commitment and international collaboration.

“Since I was made Home Secretary, I have constantly made the case for legislation to ensure the police and security services have access to the communications data they need.”

She said she would extend the work of the Extremism Task Force set up in the wake of the Lee Rigby murder. She added: “I am looking again at the case for new banning orders for extremist groups that fall short of the legal threshold for terrorist proscription, as well as for new powers to target extremists who seek to radicalise others.”

Det Ch Supt Cuddihy said: “Our focus is on keeping people safe and we work as part of the UK’s counter terrorism network to minimise the threat from terrorism and extremism.

“We maintain close liaison with national and international security partners to enhance our response.

“However, countering the terrorist threat cannot be the responsibility of the police and security partners alone.

“Of those British people who have gone to Syria and Iraq to fight, it would be foolish to discount the fact that some may have links to Scotland. Brutal IS soldiers have taken control of swathes of Syria and northern Iraq in recent months, forcing more than 1.2 million – mostly Christians and Yazidis – to flee or risk death.

The well-organised and heavily-armed force of hardline Islamists have taken key strategic towns and oil plants.

The White House are looking at their legal options to launch raids across the border to hit the terror groups’ stronghold.

Obama authorised strikes in Iraq but the legal order expires in early October.If he wants to increase his military involvement into Syria, he is expected to seek the approval of Congress.

He is ready to escalate action as a UN observer urged intervention to prevent a massacre in the northern Iraqi town of Amerli.

Special representative Nickolay ­Mladenov says he is “seriously alarmed” and fears for the town, which has been under siege by IS for two months.